I’ve had a couple 16 x 20 blank canvases in my possession for the last four years. Every time I have moved I’ve packed them up and told myself that I really need to do something with them.

Let me tell you: four years of thinking about what i could do with them was four years too long. Talk about putting pressure on yourself to make something really amazing!

I moved into my apartment last May (I can’t believe it’s coming up on a year!), and I allocated the wall space above my couch to the yet-to-be-created twin masterpieces.

I love geometric shapes and lines, so I decided that I would try using painter’s tape and make something with white lines. I’ve had the tape for a while and every weekend I would tell myself that it was time to just buckle down and paint something.

For some reason, I actually did it this weekend! Yay!

Or not.

It’s not a bad painting per se. It’s not perfect or anything, but there’s nothing terrible about it. But I just don’t love it. It doesn’t really speak to me or have any meaning. This is probably not the best way to introduce something, but I like to be honest.

Not pictured: Me shooing away my cat while the paint dried. He still managed to jump on it – thankfully it was mostly dry by then.

Here’s the final product:

It’s just ok… I think that the paintings are too small for the space and I didn’t do a very good job hanging it. I also do not really like the color – I was hoping for something darker with a little bit more green.

I didn’t really have much of a plan when I started on this. I just started taping a jagged line and then I decided to tape another jagged line parallel to it. It was pretty haphazard and not a lot of thought or passion went it. I’m realizing as I think more about it that it kind of represents my life right now. I’m going through the motions and doing the things that I need to do, but I am not really excited about any of it.

Now the question is what to do with it. I could keep it on the wall and learn to love it. Or I could give it away (does anybody want it? because you can have it. i mean it! just let me know.). Or I could paint over it and try something new. If nobody claims it, I’ll probably go with option 3.

Hopefully it won’t take me four years to come up with a new design.

(Sorry if this post is Negative Nancy. I was just really excited about the painting and then that turned into I’m really not excited about the painting.)

Happy New Year! I hope the year is treating you right so far. It’s only been six days, so nothing too bad could have happened, right?

My six days have been pretty meh. I woke up Tuesday with a sore throat and have been sick ever since, but I’m starting to get better so there’s hope. I’m spending my Friday night reading blogs, watching Dateline (seriously I don’t think I’m ever going to get married because every Dateline is about someone’s spouse dying or better yet, someone killing their spouse. color me single please!), drinking a delicious and somewhat healthy banana shake, and taking pictures of my cat:

My handsome man

And he's a cuddler

Can you blame me?

I would like to pretend that I’m only spending my evening this way because I’m sick, but it’s a pretty normal Friday night for me!

I wish I had some sage advice for the New Year, but I’m all out of ideas. This year my goal is to pay off my credit card debt, which is the same goal I had last year. I made some progress on it in 2011, but not as much as I had planned. If I buckle down and barring unexpected expenses (because that NEVER happens), I could potentially pay it all off, which is kind of crazy to think about it – in a good way of course! I’ve felt so enslaved by it for so long, it would be nice to get that monkey off my back. I already have a cat on my back. :)

P.S. I’m really excited Christmas is coming, you guys! I don’t really care about Christmas music that much, but I care about my family Christmas traditions, and more importantly, I care about seeing my family. Living across the county from them kind of sucks sometimes, so I’m really looking forward to seeing them.

While I’m on the topic of food, here’s a little public service announcement from me:

For the love of all that is holy, do not buy:

Trader Joe’s baked blue corn tortilla chips. Since they’re baked, I didn’t expect a flavor fiesta in my mouth – which is good because those “chips” tasted like straight up cardboard (el cardboardo). Barely salted cardboardo at that. Avoid it. Also, while we’re on the topic of TJs, if you buy their avocados, carefully inspect them and if they seem too soft, do not use – I got food poisoning several years ago from it. It was unpleasant and turned me off guacamole for a while – and that is a travesty.

Lipton Cup A Soup (chicken noodle). I am no snob when it comes to this type of stuff, but this soup, which I just made 5 minutes ago, is really not good. Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this cheap as hell instant soup isn’t very good, but let me tell you that Lipton Soup Secrets chicken noodle soup is the bomb. It has been my food staple when I’m sick ever since I was a kid. It is delicious and salty and wonderful. I don’t know what Lipton did to the Cup A Soup. Maybe it was the decision to use “A” instead of “of” that sent bad grammar vibes into the broth? Avoid it.

I wouldn’t say that I’m a big pumpkin fan, but this time of year it always sounds good. It’s cold, it’s rainy, there was Halloween and now Thanksgiving approaching, I want comfort food – the reasons go on and on for wanting pumpkin.

Fortunately 1 can can go a long way. Here are three recipes I made with just 1 can of pumpkin.

First, we have pumpkin and ricotta pasta casserole. I had high hopes for this, but it was kind of a letdown. I think that you have to really love pumpkin to like it. The first couple times I ate it, it was pretty OK but then I just got sick of it. And I even halved the recipe so there wouldn’t be as much leftover. I wound up throwing out the last serving as it sat in the fridge for waaaay too long. So if you just adore pumpkin, I’d say this give a try. Otherwise, save the (not cheap) pecans for something tastier ….

Pumpkin pecan granola. This I would definitely recommend. It was my first time making granola, and I plan on doing it more often! It was super easy but still felt rewarding because I got to pull a big sheet chock full of granola out of the oven, and now I have a ton of breakfasts (yogurt & granola at my desk every day) already covered. I think I took it out of the oven a little soon though – it’s more chewy than crunchy, so there’s a lesson for next time. The recipe makes quite a bit of granola, so if you’re making it for just yourself, as I was, you may want to consider making half a batch.

Finally, I made chocolate chip oatmeal pumpkin cookies. They turned out OK. They’re kind of a healthier cookie as there’s no butter (though I wouldn’t actually call them healthy). The chocolate chips are definitely key here; without them, I don’t think the cookies would be very good. Shocking, huh? Who knew chocolate was good?

If you’re in the mood for chocolate chip cookies, but want something a tad healthier, I think these are worth a shot. The great thing about this recipe is that even if you wind up not liking the final product, the recipe is for a small batch, so it’s not the end of the world if you don’t like the cookie.

So there you go – 1 can and 3 recipes. I even had a tiny bit left over but I threw it out. I am pumpkined out.*